Christopher Theunissen

Two months of preparation by sending out countless emails, going on many trips to Iceland, Tesco, Safeways and the Wellesbourne market, finding a suitable tent-like structure (two gazebos strung together) and many hours of cooking on the Friday (Kate and Mom did the meat and I the vegetarian food), finally culminated in the party on Saturday.

I was worried about the weather leading up to the party, as the forecast fluctuated between rain with a sun index of one and just cloudy with a sun index of three, but in the end, it was good weather until about half an hour after people started to arrive, when it started to pour down and we had to cover the gazebos with tarpaulins and empty the roofs of collected water at regular intervals - nice.

The following people attended, in order of arrival:

Mom (Jennifer) and Dad (Hans) - thanks for helping with the food on the Saturday and saving us from a much wetter experience by covering the gazebos with tarpaulins.
Grandma (Sheila) - thanks for doing a better job at introducing people than I was able to, while I ran around in headless chicken mode trying to find some way of accommodating so many people in a space 6'x12'.
Simon, Nasyah (thanks for washing up) and Nathan.
Kate - thanks for cooking the meat on Friday and help setting things up.
Tom Boucher - thanks for help setting up and doing the tarpaulins with my Dad.
Kelly Ackerman (Jonathan's Sister) and Mark, who I collected from Banbury at 09:00, dropped off in Stratford for the day and collected in the afternoon.
Jason Moffat - on his new Ducati. Thanks for the card and "supervising" (read "watching") the cleanup on the Sunday. ;^)
Jerry, Jenny and Scott Barnes - Sorry I didn't get to talk to you until two minutes before you had to leave.
Sean Landsman and Emma - stayed at the Stag's Head Hotel and walked fifteen minutes to our house. They had to leave again after quarter of an hour to change into warmer clothing. It started to pour down soon afterwards, so I phoned them to give a lift back. Thanks for the tasty Rioja, the metal label of which I have removed from the bottle and pinned on my cupboard curtain. I will keep the white wine for another special occasion as you suggested, which will probably be when you visit again, so you can help "share" the bottle with me again. ;^)
Dave Lambert - thanks for the card.
Gina Krämer - thanks for the card and wine.
Janet Dornan - thanks for the card and wine. I will have to make sure we fit in a game of Pictionary next time. ;-)
Mike Warren - thanks for the card.
Pat Warren - thanks for the card.
Nicki, Michael and Finlay Hennigan - thanks for the gift and card.
Mark and Jessica - thanks for the card.
Megan Johnston - thanks for the card and taking time out of your busy schedule of studying and rowing, or is that rowing and studying? ;-)
David, Cele, Mickayla, Patrick, Emma and Callum - thanks for the card and crystal, which is now hanging in my window.

Unfortunately, I only used my camera near the end, so only have photos of the following stragglers:

At about 11:30, it was just down to Kate, Tom, Jason, Nasyah, Mark, Kelly and I with Jason and Mark DJ'ing and me worrying about disturbing the neighbours, but it was totally unfounded until I stood on the audio cable and pulled it out of the laptop headphones socket resulting in a twofold increase in volume.

We all finally staggered off to sleep at 02:30.

Thank you all for sharing my birthday with me, hope you enjoyed it and look forward to many more.

27 July 2003 - Go-Karting at

Go-karting at Mr Karting was a lot of fun. Jason, Mike, Sean, Emma and I took part with Mark and Kelly spectating. It seemed to last longer than the last time I went with my Dad and Brother.

Thanks to Kelly for the following action shots taken with my camera:

The results in position order are as follows:

Sean (Kart 13 - 42 laps - 14:52.70):

Lap	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	25.78	24.53	24.55	22.82	22.16	21.85	23.70	20.07	21.87	21.24
11	21.05	21.07	20.96	21.67	22.32	19.56	19.22	19.66	19.49	19.87
21	18.80	19.82	19.68	19.30	20.14	20.11	19.78	20.31	20.58	20.48
31	20.35	20.46	35.75	20.15	19.71	18.90	19.18	*18.47*	19.81	18.62
41	18.98	19.62

Christopher (Kart 12 - 42 laps - 15:00.92)

Lap	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	23.33	24.34	23.44	22.46	22.15	22.10	22.78	20.70	21.92	19.24
11	19.11	19.12	18.96	19.29	20.74	21.41	21.01	21.51	19.82	*18.59*
21	19.24	20.82	20.98	20.87	20.36	23.07	19.64	20.43	21.39	21.43
31	21.52	19.36	40.08	19.20	19.52	19.51	19.78	19.85	20.36	18.92
41	19.66	19.43

Mike (Kart 16 - 43 laps - 15:01.06)

Lap	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	23.09	23.12	20.70	19.45	19.57	19.57	19.40	19.38	19.47	19.22
11	21.11	21.06	21.25	20.75	20.43	25.00	21.25	19.08	18.96	18.89
21	18.81	18.69	19.78	19.60	19.34	19.65	20.27	20.45	19.65	20.67
31	21.16	21.91	19.04	42.12	18.90	*18.62*	18.84	19.60	19.99	20.30
41	19.18	19.40	19.21

Jason (Kart 11 - 40 laps - 14:52.30)

Lap	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	25.74	25.82	23.83	23.19	22.64	23.20	22.55	22.47	22.89	21.25
11	21.50	21.38	21.03	22.54	21.71	21.12	21.28	21.30	20.76	20.66
21	20.85	20.45	20.30	20.12	21.07	21.08	22.45	20.24	21.79	22.22
31	21.40	37.82	20.37	20.65	20.47	20.55	20.30	20.53	*19.90*	20.61
41

Emma (Kart 14 - 41 laps - 15:05.60)

Lap	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	27.58	24.85	23.86	22.89	22.17	22.31	22.35	20.99	20.76	21.11
11	21.17	21.07	20.99	20.91	24.67	22.36	21.07	21.10	21.38	21.22
21	20.98	20.98	20.81	20.49	21.51	21.13	20.45	21.12	20.24	20.37
31	20.66	37.07	21.34	20.65	*20.00*	20.12	21.35	20.52	20.04	20.01
41	21.58

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